On May 16, I had the good fortune to be able to attend (and work) the Parade of Horribles release/launch event at its Nashville, TN.
As much as I want to describe in detail like every freaking moment of the event and what I was doing (no kidding, working an event is a great way to interact with other fans) that’s not what I want to be doing here. I worked my butt off, sweated, got in way too many steps, and was up far too late with way too much adrenaline.
I have no regrets.
What I did see behind the scenes was the reality behind a dream.
I would absolutely love to see something I created be such a draw to so many people. There were something in the ballpark of 1000 attendees at the event, plus the author Matt Dinniman, his moderator Maude Garrett, and of course the venue staff and event workers like myself.
I’m no stranger to performing. I’ve been involved with some form of performance since I was a child. I’ve gone through countless theater productions, musical performances, podcast creation and editing, guest appearances, interviews, livestreaming, conventions, and I’ve done game mastering for tabletop RPGs for decades. These events are draining physically, emotionally, mentally, and socially. And there can be additional trials: you may be away from home, traveling, surrounded by strangers. You may not be able to go home every night to recover.
Fatigue is real, and I saw that in the people around me at the event. I was exhausted being feet on the ground at a single event. I wasn’t doing any coordinating, organizing, ore administrating. I wasn’t the center of attention doing talks and autographs. I was a one-time performer for a few hours, and it was performing the sense that it was sales and fan interactions.
What I did was like… 5% of what Dinniman was doing. Sure, he’s the center of attention and gets the “star treatment” as far as it goes for something like this. He gets the adoration, the attention, the questions and compliments, the interview, and the money.
But I saw a man who was just shy of halfway into an absolutely draining two week tour. The Nashville event was stop four of like 9 stops, and the tour dates were May 11 - May 25. Literally two weeks or cross-country travel, hotels, and tons of people. At Nashville alone, multiple hundreds of people were in line for individual personalized copies of the book (or other autographed items). So on top of travel and being away from his home and personal comforts, he had setup and arrival, preshow interactions with fans and crew, then the interview, then a few hours of autographs and photos with a line that never seemed to end.
That’s a long time to be “on.”
The man was exhausted and still had over a week to go. I mean, as of my writing this (May 25) he still has the final event to go tonight. Even after Nashville, he had to get up early to catch a flight to Florida to do it all over again the next night. Then the next day, a flight to Philadelphia to do it AGAIN that next night.
It’s so easy to attend something like this, a concert or release or other big event, and think it’s the dream. I want to be a big famous author and do stuff like this.
Reality is intense and exhausting. Rewarding, absolutely. I know when I’m a stage performer or panelist at a con or GMing a game session, I love it while it’s happening, but I get burned out after. Multi-day conventions have an energy all their own, but wind-down and recovery time are a very serious requirement.
I can’t imagine what kind of crash Matt Dinniman is going to need when he gets back home.
I guess what I’m really saying with this is just… be kind to your favorite content creators and performers. They’re tired.
As much as I want to describe in detail like every freaking moment of the event and what I was doing (no kidding, working an event is a great way to interact with other fans) that’s not what I want to be doing here. I worked my butt off, sweated, got in way too many steps, and was up far too late with way too much adrenaline.
I have no regrets.
What I did see behind the scenes was the reality behind a dream.
I would absolutely love to see something I created be such a draw to so many people. There were something in the ballpark of 1000 attendees at the event, plus the author Matt Dinniman, his moderator Maude Garrett, and of course the venue staff and event workers like myself.
I’m no stranger to performing. I’ve been involved with some form of performance since I was a child. I’ve gone through countless theater productions, musical performances, podcast creation and editing, guest appearances, interviews, livestreaming, conventions, and I’ve done game mastering for tabletop RPGs for decades. These events are draining physically, emotionally, mentally, and socially. And there can be additional trials: you may be away from home, traveling, surrounded by strangers. You may not be able to go home every night to recover.
Fatigue is real, and I saw that in the people around me at the event. I was exhausted being feet on the ground at a single event. I wasn’t doing any coordinating, organizing, ore administrating. I wasn’t the center of attention doing talks and autographs. I was a one-time performer for a few hours, and it was performing the sense that it was sales and fan interactions.
What I did was like… 5% of what Dinniman was doing. Sure, he’s the center of attention and gets the “star treatment” as far as it goes for something like this. He gets the adoration, the attention, the questions and compliments, the interview, and the money.
But I saw a man who was just shy of halfway into an absolutely draining two week tour. The Nashville event was stop four of like 9 stops, and the tour dates were May 11 - May 25. Literally two weeks or cross-country travel, hotels, and tons of people. At Nashville alone, multiple hundreds of people were in line for individual personalized copies of the book (or other autographed items). So on top of travel and being away from his home and personal comforts, he had setup and arrival, preshow interactions with fans and crew, then the interview, then a few hours of autographs and photos with a line that never seemed to end.
That’s a long time to be “on.”
The man was exhausted and still had over a week to go. I mean, as of my writing this (May 25) he still has the final event to go tonight. Even after Nashville, he had to get up early to catch a flight to Florida to do it all over again the next night. Then the next day, a flight to Philadelphia to do it AGAIN that next night.
It’s so easy to attend something like this, a concert or release or other big event, and think it’s the dream. I want to be a big famous author and do stuff like this.
Reality is intense and exhausting. Rewarding, absolutely. I know when I’m a stage performer or panelist at a con or GMing a game session, I love it while it’s happening, but I get burned out after. Multi-day conventions have an energy all their own, but wind-down and recovery time are a very serious requirement.
I can’t imagine what kind of crash Matt Dinniman is going to need when he gets back home.
I guess what I’m really saying with this is just… be kind to your favorite content creators and performers. They’re tired.
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